Kolansk's Wizard Scroll One
If it *is* a protected book, you're looking at, as a pretty minimal investment: A securely-lockable case of (hardwood/iron/adamantine/riverine, depending on level and wealth of wizard) secured with an Arcane Lock as well as a physical lock, containing a Very Obvious Spellbook, with Mystic Sygyls and all the trappings of Most High Magicks. This book is a decoy, meant to be destroyed to satisfy the unaware saboteur, and contains nothing but Sepia Snake Sigils and/or Explosive Runes for those curious enough to read it. The case has a false bottom. Under this false bottom is another book, Shrink Item'd (Shrink Item reduces an item by four size categories, which will take a standard book pretty much off the bottom of the size chart altogether, rendering it quite difficult to locate.) This one is empty or possibly bearing Secret Pages to *look* like a spellbook; it's just there to bother the more thorough searcher who came prepared with magical detection. Your *actual* spellbook is also Shrink Item'd and in a clothlike state. Remember how this takes it below the small end of the standard size chart? And now it's flexible? You can hide that sucker any dang place you feel like. Shove it in an internal pocket of your shirt, or in a shiny metal cigar case, or whatever. It'll fit anywhere, and the only way anybody is getting at it is to strip search you. (And not even that, once you have enough caster level/spare low level spell slots: cast an (Extended) Hoard Gullet and you can swallow the thing into a personal extradimensional 'stomach', requiring people to successfully Dispel you before ever having a chance to spot your spellcloth patch.) For me, safely storing my spellbook is a (relatively large) spellbook shrunk once by Permanent Shrink Item (with one command word which my character would perhaps only peripherally know, like a random, seemingly incomprehensible set of syllables), and then again by a regular Shrink Item (with a relatively common command word, which my character would never use in daily conversation, but might still know quite well, like "zyzzyva") and then encapsulated in a fake tooth hidden inside my own mouth (unless I have a willing participant in one of the other party members, preferably somebody big and dumb, in which case it's in their mouth). This ensures that any DM willing to hold me (or my big, dumb friend) down and pry the tooth out of my (or their) mouth first has to endure 3.5's grapple rules. My book is also trapped with Explosive Runes on every page that is a prime number, and Sepia Snake Sigil on every page that is a number in the Fibonacci sequence (twice again for the first page, of course, since it is the page that is most often read first). Since Sepia Snake Sigil, unlike Explosive Runes, has no explicit wording within the spell's language that allows me to read the text myself, I prepare these as dummy pages using Secret Page (meaning my spellbook either has 109 pages, only 100 of which contain spells, or it has only 91 pages worth of spells). Assuming I haven't banned illusion (I did when making my Incantatrix), Magic Aura is then cast upon the book so as to make it seem nonmagical. My fake book exists in small, wooden case or lockbox, magically treated to be fireproof and water-tight, inside my bag, locked with a mundane lock, which isn't trapped, but has Phantom Trap cast upon it (to give the appearance that it is, in fact, trapped). While the lock isn't trapped, the box itself is trapped with both an Alarm, which goes off very loudly if anybody but myself opens the box, and (if necessary) a Sign of Sealing at whatever caster level I can get it at (typically my own). Every page is a Secret Page, and also has Explosive Runes cast on it. The book has an aura, as per the Magic Aura spell, of illusion (to make it "seem fake", or perhaps Phantom Trapped, in a double-feint). The key to the fake book, as well as my back-up spellbook, are in a Secret Chest as soon as the opportunity strikes, else they are hidden in a remote, neutral location until I need them (obscured only with abjurations and illusions; I don't want to draw attention to it). I had a DM who never tried to steal my book (whenever it was fiated away, which is to say before I devised these magical protections, it was usually through "the lawful authority of the region takes your spellbook from you as you enter X place"), but explicitly stated that it would be stolen. I quit before it ever was (unrelated to this). Now, I just keep this regiment in mind for any future games I might play (everything is level 3 or lower except for Secret Chest, which means I could play this character in an E6 campaign, which is great, because I intend to do exactly that some day). Category:Wizard advice scrolls